trip hawkins – VG247http://www.vg247.com
VG247.comFri, 09 Dec 2016 14:30:15 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.5.3Trip Hawkins’s new game is a social and emotional learning title for iPadhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/12/16/trip-hawkinss-new-game-is-a-social-and-emotional-learning-title-for-ipad/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/12/16/trip-hawkinss-new-game-is-a-social-and-emotional-learning-title-for-ipad/#respondMon, 16 Dec 2013 00:06:34 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=435143EA founder Trip Hawkins’s new London studio If You Can has drawn back the veil on its first major project, an educational iPad game for children.

Aimed at kids aged six to 12 years old If… has no release date yet. It’s being developed in close collaboration with social and emotional learning experts, and is designed to help children develop emotional intelligence about cyberbullying.

The iPad title was built in Unity, and casts players as an anthropomorphic animal who must unite the warring dog and cat tribes. Kids will have to make moral choices, but Hawkins is working hard to make the game fun, not preachy, so that kids ‘don’t smell the spinach’.

Lessons taught include identifying what is an emotion, recognising what someone else is feeling, how conflicts can escalate and what are the tools to calm it down, how to disagree with someone and still stay friends, and getting people to act in a more compassionate way. Players can befriend a variety of creatures called Vim, although you can’t capture them and it doesn’t sound like they battle.

“Today, every kid gets bullied. Cyberbullying is growing. It’s driving youths to commit suicide. If you happen to be a bully, the redemption of a bully is something you can learn,” Hawkins told VentureBeat.

“Both victims and bullies can play a game like this. I don’t think being a bully makes a bully happy.”

Hawkins firmly believes his game can affect real world behaviour, and he has full support from Fred Luskin, a Stanford University consultant and member of Learning to Forgive.

“What Trip is trying to teach is more positive social behaviours, like how to have more self control and patience. To teach them to choose the right kinds of responses,” he said.

“The schools are not teaching this, but kids are being taught these things anyway as they live. The question is to what degree these qualities can be learned and maintained through a game. Gaming has value because it conveys visual, motor, and language lessons.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/12/16/trip-hawkinss-new-game-is-a-social-and-emotional-learning-title-for-ipad/feed/0Trip Hawkins opens new London studio If You Canhttp://www.vg247.com/2013/01/08/trip-hawkins-opens-new-london-studio-if-you-can/
http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/08/trip-hawkins-opens-new-london-studio-if-you-can/#commentsTue, 08 Jan 2013 18:34:55 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=328235EA co-founder Trip Hawkins has opened If You Can, a new studio in London with Moshi Monsters lead producer Ben Geliher. The studio will focus on educational games with the first round of funding from Venture Capitalists.

“Great game development can take place anywhere in the world if you have the right people,” Hawkins told GI International. “If anything I’m disinclined to ramp up on the San Francisco area because it’s so expensive and there’s very high turnover with people switching companies. The culture and the lifestyle there is a little bit daunting.

“In the past there were countries like Ireland or Canada that we particularly attractive to game development because of government practices and tax credits and so on, but the European Union has done more to standardize that and benefits are becoming available in the UK.”

The first titles are expected this year, and the firm is currently recruiting talent.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2013/01/08/trip-hawkins-opens-new-london-studio-if-you-can/feed/3EA founder claims console market is becoming nichehttp://www.vg247.com/2012/10/12/ea-founder-claims-console-market-is-becoming-niche/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/12/ea-founder-claims-console-market-is-becoming-niche/#commentsFri, 12 Oct 2012 09:11:17 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=306392EA founder Trip Hawkins has explained why he feels the console market is shrinking down to a ‘hobby business’, while the PC and mobile sectors will continue to boom.

Speaking with IGN, Hawkins – who founded EA in 1982 – stated, “The console market is always going to be with us, because there’s always going to be a hardcore segment, a segment that likes innovation. But it’s going to become a smaller market, and it’s going to be more like a hobby market.”

“You look at airplanes,” he continued, “Most of us just want to be a passenger, but there’s a hobby market for people who are really into aviation and want to take flying lessons and maybe someday have their own airplane. I think that’s what’s happening to the console market.”

“But there are billions of people now playing games,” he stressed, “The gaming industry is finally becoming mass-market. It’s across two billion PCs and four billion mobile phones, and within a few years a billion tablets. In terms of total audience size, we’re getting into really big numbers.”

Another reason Hawkins believes consoles will become niche is that people can play games on more devices and through more content streams than that box in your living room.

“Games are going everywhere,” he said, “Plenty of people are playing for social reasons and playing when it’s convenient. It’s a trend towards mobile- and browser- and cloud-based games.”

“You contrast that with what happens when you have to either purchase or download a specific app that runs native on a specific device and you only ever play it when you have that platform in front of you.”

“In the old days I’d go down to the basement to play Grand Theft Auto. But the Facebook gamer is able to play at work, at home, in a hotel on a PC. They can get access to a browser just about anywhere. People are thinking about convenience first.”

What’s your take? Is Hawkins on the money with this, or are consoles just going through a transitional phase?

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/10/12/ea-founder-claims-console-market-is-becoming-niche/feed/7Digital Chocolate lays off 180 people, Hawkins stands down as CEOhttp://www.vg247.com/2012/05/28/digital-chocolate-lays-off-180-people-hawkins-stands-down-as-ceo/
http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/28/digital-chocolate-lays-off-180-people-hawkins-stands-down-as-ceo/#commentsMon, 28 May 2012 06:22:53 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=262397Social studio Digital Chocolate has laid off 180 of its staff, with CEO Trip Hawkins also stepping down from his role as CEO of the company.

On his company blog, which seems to have disappeared, Hawkins stated why he made his departure from the studio.

“I am transitioning now into a consulting and advisory relationship with Digital Chocolate. For its next stage of growth, Digital Chocolate is narrowing its focus and it made sense to get more streamlined,” he said.

Hawkins’ leaving comes on the 30th anniversary today of him founding and incorporating Electronic Arts on May 28, 1982.

According to TechCrunch, Marc Metis has made the step up from president to intrim CEO.

In addition, 180 staff have been let go through studios San Mateo and Bangalore, with studio closures in Mexicali and Armenia, plus offices from Sandlot – Digital Chocolate bought the company in 2009 – in Bothell, Washington and St. Petersburg.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2012/05/28/digital-chocolate-lays-off-180-people-hawkins-stands-down-as-ceo/feed/1Hawkins suggests casual devs practice platform agnosticism because iOS is “close to peaking”http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/02/hawkins-suggests-casual-devs-practice-platform-agnosticism-because-ios-is-close-to-peaking/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/02/hawkins-suggests-casual-devs-practice-platform-agnosticism-because-ios-is-close-to-peaking/#respondTue, 02 Aug 2011 13:14:56 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=190960Digital Chocolate CEO Trip Hawkins believes if Apple were to “support all of the web standards,” instead of maintain staunch control over it’s App Store along with continued insistence on using HTML5, the firm could be “the best at everything.”

Speaking with Edge in Bareclona during the Gamelab conference, Hawkins told the magazine Apple’s “very close” peaking and in order for the game studios which make a living off iOS devices to continue thriving, a “more open, democratic cross-platform stance,” should be implemented.

“Digital Chocolate’s games will always be in the App Store, but I think it would be an incredibly positive thing for the industry if Apple decided to support all of the web standards, because then Apple could be the best about everything,” said Hawkins, who back in the early 80s was director of strategy and marketing for Apple.

“Right now they make a conscious choice. They want you to be in the App Store rather than the browser, so they cripple the browser. They’ve created this outlet and they had to have an excuse to keep you there… Flash can actually make a really good game, and with HTML5 you can’t do that. But give HTML5 another few years to mature, and that could solve the problem. Or Apple could be more generous about deciding to support more de facto standards like Flash, or at least let it run its course.

“[Apple] invented this tablet thing that’s going to be really big. They’ve done really well by reinventing the phone. They breathed new life into the Mac. They’ve got this super-high marketing. All these things are about as good as they ever can be – how much better can it really get?

“The thing is, it may take another year or two before it starts to decline, but it has to – everything does. But you asked about developers and how they feel about the App Store platform. I think that if you really love a platform – it could be Apple, it could be Nintendo, it could be Facebook – and you’re really good at making things that are a perfect fit with the native programming requirements of that platform, then it’s okay to be on it and roll with the punches. You just have to get good at what that platform’s about, then you can survive.

“But if you want to be more successful, you have to be on more platforms, and you have to take a more open, democratic cross-platform stance.”

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/08/02/hawkins-suggests-casual-devs-practice-platform-agnosticism-because-ios-is-close-to-peaking/feed/0Hawkins: Gaming currently in the dark ages due in part to “software licensing”http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/12/hawkins-gaming-currently-in-the-dark-ages-due-in-part-to-software-licensing/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/12/hawkins-gaming-currently-in-the-dark-ages-due-in-part-to-software-licensing/#commentsTue, 12 Jul 2011 20:07:07 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=185888Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate founder Trip Hawkins believes we are currently in the dark ages of gaming. According to Hawkins, the golden age of gaming died when big companies like Nintendo came upon the scene with software licensing.

Hawkins is of the opinion that software licensing stifles creativity and innovation.

“I think we actually had our golden age when game development was using floppy disks and it was an open free platform when we could all make games like we wanted to make,” said Hawkins. ”Nintendo came along and software licensing came in and we’ve been in a dark age since then.

“How many great companies have been built on the world-wide web, which is an open platform. The list just goes on and on, and Nintendo’s been doing things this way for 25 years and there are no great companies that have been built on the back of Nintendo.”

Hawkins said today, developers are only able to create innovative games when backed by a major publisher such as Nintendo. He feels social and web gaming firms can be creative without answering to large firms, and are thus more successful because of it.

Hawkins statements were made during the GamesBeat 2011 conference in San Francisco.

]]>http://www.vg247.com/2011/07/12/hawkins-gaming-currently-in-the-dark-ages-due-in-part-to-software-licensing/feed/3Trip Hawkins in serious shizzle over $20m tax billhttp://www.vg247.com/2011/03/28/trip-hawkins-in-serious-shizzle-over-20m-tax-bill/
http://www.vg247.com/2011/03/28/trip-hawkins-in-serious-shizzle-over-20m-tax-bill/#commentsMon, 28 Mar 2011 19:24:12 +0000http://www.vg247.com/?p=159234A San Francisco federal judge has rejected the effort of EA founder Trip Hawkins to use personal bankruptcy to cancel more than $20 million of federal and California state tax obligations stemming from, according to this Forbes report, “abusive tax shelters he used to shield vast profits from Electronic Arts, the pioneering video gaming firm he founded nearly three decades ago.”

Judge Jeffrey S White upheld an earlier bankruptcy-court ruling this week, saying Hawkins knew he was insolvent after the Internal Revenue Service disallowed his tax shelters but “continued to spend money extravagantly with knowledge of his tax liabilities” to the IRS and the California Franchise Tax Board.

“Hawkins planned to defeat his taxes via bankruptcy and continue living the lifestyle to which he had grown accustomed,” the judge declared.

Cited evidence included purchase of a $70,000 car–the fourth vehicle in a two-driver household.

Hawkins, now the CEO of mobile game firm Digital Chocolate, filed for bankruptcy alongside his wife in 2006, claiming assets of $5 million compared to liabilities of $28 million, the majority of which is tax debt.

At the time, the couple obtained a general discharge of their debts, but the US tax agencies successfully avoided the cleansing under a provision of bankruptcy law that prohibits discharge of tax debts if the debtor “willfully attempted in any manner to evade or defeat such tax.”

The outstanding tax liability is not clear from court filings but appears to be between $20 million and $25 million.

In 2006 the IRS rejected Hawkins’ proposal of an offer-in-compromise settlement of his tax obligations for $8 million.

“Whoops.”

Hawkins co-founded EA in 1982, before going on to run 3DO in 1991. At his wealthiest, Hawkins was estimated to be worth more than $100 million, mainly in EA stock.

EA founder Trip Hawkins has predicted console exclusivity and consoles in general will become a thing of the past as more publishers get on board with Cloud-gaming.

Speaking in the second episode of Game Theory, Hawkins said companies need to hurdle over “platform boundaries” by publishing games aimed for multiple devices.

“For much of the history of the industry, it was a winner takes all, single platform model,” he said. “Clearly it’s never going to be that way again.

“In the future, any kind of game company will have to have a technology approach that gives them agility across platform boundaries.

“That’s going to play into where gaming needs to go, which is to become like SAS – or Software as a Service – where customers are going to the Cloud, where they have an account and where they have virtual items and they can play.

“But they might come in from a variety of different devices. It’s going to be about simplicity and convenience and making that model work.”

His comments echo those uttered by Hideo Kojima in April, when the gaming legend said consoles will be phased out “in the near future”, so gamers can “have games that don’t depend on any platform”.

Trip Hawkins, formerly the director of strategy and marketing at Apple before founding Electronic Arts and going on head console and game developer 3DO, founded handheld game developer Digital Chocolate in 2003.

He was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 2005.

Trip “Poster Boy” Hawkins has told VentureBeat that Sony and Nintendo are currently “freaking out” at inroads made into the gaming space by iPhone.

“The iPhone is by far our most effective platform,” said the EA founder and Digital Chocolate boss.

“We make as much money with these games on one device as we do putting a game on 100 different cell phone platforms. Between the iPod Touch and the iPhone, I think the platform is freaking out Sony and Nintendo.

“Apple has sold 30 million units so far and it has created tremendous awareness. It has taken ground all over the world. But it has only penetrated one half of one percent of its total market.”